<P> For Everyone, A Place (Yu/Xanir)

[Syrie]

It had been some time since Joss and Yu had rescued the trans-dimensional traveler, Xanir, and in that time the Dragon King had found that the female was very honorable, intelligent and capable - even when she was injured and smarting from the knowledge that she couldn't go "home", that her ship and crew were no more (save for what little the Dragon had brought back). She had grown weary of resting, this Yu knew, but what duties to offer? What skills had she, beyond captaining a space ship?

Yet another thing for him to contemplate.

Rather than being at Harmodius' side, Yu was in his personal rooms, attending to various needed chores and making a list of things for Artimesh to take care of while he was out patrolling or attending the Twin Crown. Whether they would actually get done was anyone's guess - Artimesh was a loyal Aoide, but she was a demoness. She was built for battle and intrigue, for seduction and fighting, not for administrative duties! Xia Lu Ling heard these things often enough, but while she did not like her current duties and station within his entourage, she obeyed and tried to do as her Lord wished.

Usually.  

[prolixity]

Xanir had no formal duties in this place, the Pantheon; this was, she had learned, the home of the True Gods, the focal point for their revival from the long ages where too few believers remained to support their temples, their power. It had surprised her at first that she had not been encouraged to attend worship services or swear allegiances. She had been prepared to attend services, certainly, but temples were political strongholds as much as they were places of worship, and she had thought it unwise to declare any connections before she had a better idea of her position, of Lord Yu's influences and alliances, and of the undercurrents of power that flowed like ambaric channels through such places. But no such pressures had been applied, overtly or covertly.

Perhaps the True Gods had less need of political maneuvering. Or perhaps it was simply that the Gods played their games on a level that she was not and could not be familiar with. In the temples of the Gallic empire, the high priests and officials were the queens of the chessboard; the gods were kings, their designated space on the board present but left empty.

Here, perhaps, the Gods were the players who moved the pieces.

Her physical recovery had been fairly rapid, but she took care not to strain her body beyond its limits, performing her exercises and katas daily and conscientiously. Her body felt lighter in this world, the pull of the Spheres diminished; Gaia's curve must be sharper, she inferred, the planet smaller. The sky was empty of the arc of planetary rings, but the stars in the sky were much brighter and more densely packed than those she was familiar with.

She had adjusted her training to account for the lighter pull, but it had been the constellations that had brought on her second -- and last, she hoped, she intended -- fit of homesick tears. All the symphony of strangeness that was her new life had been bearable until she looked to the starred dome of the midnight sky one night in the second week and realized that she could pick out not a single constellation, that the stars were no longer her compass and her comfort. She had sat down beside a graceful, decorative fountain and wept for a long time, interrupted only by one of the small, rodent-like tame creatures that wandered the Pantheon. The touch of its warm fur had helped her regain her equilibrium, and by the time she had returned to the room she had been given, her composure was back in place. She could learn these new stars.

The items salvaged from the wreckage of the Red Dawn were a motley collection, clothing and personal items, tools and parts. She had requested enough of the clothing to mend and alter for her own use, a set of grooming tools, a few minor personal effects, and felt no guilt at having appropriated the possessions of her crewmembers. They were not here; she had a use for their belongings, and she had not taken what she did not need. The only thing that had given her pause was a small, ivory-inlaid wooden box with a copper latch. She recognized it. It had belonged to her Captain.

Today Xanir wore an embroidered jacket and an embossed leather belt over her utilitarian tunic and breeches. She intended to request of Lord Yu that she be permitted to take up duties of some sort in his household; as such, she had worn clothing that represented her desire to work, but accentuated the outfit with decorative elements to express her respect for her benefactor's rank and power. The brooch that closed the collar of her jacket was a carved jade lozenge set in finely worked white gold, a fine and expensive piece, enough so that she had hesitated over including it. But it had been her Captain's. She had to assume that the older woman was dead, lost to her forever, and in the end she had chosen to wear the brooch to honor her Captain's memory.

One of the Aiode, a slim young female with only two eyes and furless skin, had directed Xanir to Lord Yu's personal chambers. Xanir straightened her tunic, stood straight and proud, and knocked firmly on the door.  

[Syrie]

Xanir...was a mystery, of the good kind. She was very brave, stalwart and intelligent; there were many attributes to the refugee that Yu could admire and respect. And if she occasionally had a rough patch or looked sad and melancholy she never complained, taking each new thing in stride. He had put one of his underlings to task helping teach her about the world she now dwelt in, bringing all manner of books and scrolls, maps and mysteries from the Library that she might study and acclimate herself more readily.

She was a quick study, certainly, and free to roam as she pleased. Yu put no restraints upon Xanir save that she not go beyond that marketplace without escort, for safety's sake. Certainly Yu could find her a place within his entourage that would suit? It was this he mulled over, rather than Artimesh and his list, when Xanir came to the sealed doors to seek audience.

The rapping at his door finally brought Yu's attention firmly back into the present and he straightened in his most comfortable of chairs, tail twitching against the plush fabric supporting his heavy frame.

"Come, if you have business with Yu Five Claws."

The Dragon King scented the air but his own chambers where quite sealed, so unless he wanted to reshape his room or otherwise expend mana, he couldn't tell whom it was wanting entrance. After a moment one of the two grand doors opened to allow Xanir entry.

Then again, there weren't many that would come to bother Xia Lu Ling while he was sequestered within his own rooms....most tried to contact him when he was out and about for some reason; it was generally his own servants or Ashoka that sought him here. Or the children.  

[prolixity]

The door opened of its own accord. Xanir was still getting used to the easy, casual use of magic; in the world she was used to, magic did not flow so freely, required careful calculation and exchanges of energy. She would have put the difference down to the scale in power between a mortal and a God, but she had seen, in her cautious forays to the market, that mortals seemed to use magic here much more often, much more readily. Perhaps the ether flowed more freely here or was more potent. But she should not allow herself to be distracted by such contemplations. She had a petition to make.

She stepped into the room, walking with as confident a pace as she could manage, and stopped a respectful distance from the chair where Lord Yu sat. She bowed, carefully judging her angle; not so deep as to indicate subservience, but in deep formal respect. "Lord Yu, I greet you," she said, concentrating on bypassing the magical translation to speak in carefully practiced though heavily accented English. "I come ask you, wish to do work." Then she lapsed back into Gallic, allowing the translation to resume. She had only begun to grasp the grammatical structure of this new language, and her vocabulary was small; she had looked up words and checked her phrasing with one of the Aiode, but she knew that past the initial, simple request, her understanding of English was not complete enough to allow any nuanced conversation. "I am willing to do any work that I am set to, but please allow me to present my skills so that my abilities may best be put to use."

She adopted the parade rest pose, feet at shoulder width, hands folded behind her back, tail held in a relaxed resting curve. Her smaller ears folded again in the sixth degree of submission, a gesture that she used frequently and half-reflexively when she had the chance to speak to her benefactor. She had learned that Gaians did not have a precise equivalent to the codified, formalized body language that Gallian citizens learned from an early age, and it made her wonder how they adequately interpreted and expressed the proper degrees of rank, submission, and respect. She had a lot to learn. Still, she continued to use correct Gallic etiquette. It was the right thing to do, and should she ever meet another person from her world again, it would not do to have become rusty at the forms.

"I am trained and starred as a Navigator. My duties on an airship have included the creation and arrangement of duty schedules and work assignments to be performed by my ship's crew, overseeing battle training and assigning skilled instructors to perform training in combat and exercises, supervising and performing adjudication and disciplinary action, arranging and writing formal communications within my ship's command structure and between my ship and outside sources, and performing inspections and necessary repairs to my ship's equipment. I have three of five stars in mechanical and steam engineering and two of five stars in ambaric engineering. I have no aptitude for magical engineering, but I am familiar with theory in magical diagramming and circuitry." Her recitation of her skills was delivered in a measured, confident voice; she kept eye contact during the list. "Outside my military career, I have logged a full hundred hours of observation in council and parliamentary chambers. Law is not my field of study, but my honored mothers wished that I learn debate and negotiation as befits a daughter of House Arato. However, I feel I should specify that I have only a single star certified in these fields. I have also the craftwork skills of a daughter of a noble house: enough of the decorative arts and of dance and music to perform basic instruction for children should that role be chosen for me. But I would like to request that I be given tasks in which I can perform more than simply adequately."

She bowed again. "If you wish further detail of any of my skills or if you would like to inquire after other skills I may have, I would be pleased to provide you with information. I feel that I have healed fully from the injuries with which I arrived in your household, and I will be pleased to perform whichever duties you choose to assign to me to the best of my abilities. I owe you my life, my well-being, and my comfort, and if you will allow it, I wish to declare my allegiance to you, Lord Yu. I have seen that you are an honorable and kind person, and the compass of my heart as well as my personal debts to you demand that I perform in your service for as long as you will permit it."

She came to attention, standing straight and proud with her hands at her sides. Now she could only wait patiently and still for whatever reply he chose to make to her petition.  

[Syrie]

Had any ventured to ask - or even to comment - the Dragon King would have shown red fang in smile and simply given over a rather simplistic answer as to why so many of his doors opened with mana, more than (or even rather than, in the case of Yu's private chamber) with physical action. He had better things for his servants, followers and/or believers to be doing than opening and shutting doors. With Xia Lu Ling's bleeding off mana, it had to go somewhere, didn't it? Generally to the improvement of the space around them, either his own personal spaces or the Marketplace where there was always a use for such things.

But none thought to question him on such things, least of all those under his own House. It was because Yu Five Claws wished it so, they need know (or in fact concerned themselves with) precious little more than that in general.

Certainly he knew that there were realms and worlds where mana was rare and Gods in the flesh - so to speak - rarer still. When Yggdrasil was healed perhaps he should travel more. There was one place that had stood out to him like a sore thumb and while it had been severely diminished by Gehenna (as so many places were) some shred of it, perhaps even a living piece, had survived and was now returning to what he could only assume the most typical state of it's interesting existence. But what to do? He was busy and just trying to manage his House and Duties ate much of his time? Again the Dragon's brain whirled around to this point, a most vexing problem indeed, even for one that did not need to sleep, merely to rest.

Xanir's entry was preceded minutely by her strange and exotic scent; Yu chuckled a bit to himself - so this was to be less obnoxious than he might have anticipated, for the refugee rarely did anything that one could count as a 'waste' of his time. "Ah." Both sets of eyes focused on Xanir, noting - as ever - the most exacting and precise manner with which she moved, presented herself and spoke. He should ask Silence to visit Xanir sometime...if anyone could pick up on her species traditional and nuanced manner of gesture-and-speech, it was Endiovar. Yes, he would do that...sometime soon. Perhaps it would ease the strain of the common tongue for her, Yu knew it must be horribly coarse and dissatisfying for Xanir to use it, though she did it as a means of honoring him. Which he appreciated almost as much as the figure she cut in dress.

"My dear Xanir...you are, as always, most welcome." He inclined his head to her, less precise but formal and almost elegant, according her respect and welcome though not as an equal. Yu almost flashed his teeth in a grin, thinking that he'd hardly give Artimesh such a nod - but the Demoness was far less learned (or respectful) than Xanir. When she spoke in the accented English, he didn't do her the disservice of quirking a brow or behaving poorly, he simply listened and gave her his full and undivided attention (or as close to it as he ever came when away from the Twin Crown). The way the Gallian folded her ears was a gesture he'd come to know fairly well, Xanir did it when addressing him - always - and Yu understood that it was a show of respect or something akin to it.

Her request came as no surprise, really. Xanir was an esteemed officer of her home world and languishing, even when her body sorely needed it had seemed to chafe. "Very well. Continue then, we shall see if I can find something suitable for one of your intellect and skill." The Dragon King settled in to hear what the young female had to say and knowing that he would be able to find something to set her to task at, but not entirely certain - until he heard her listing out the myriad duties and functions she'd performed as the ship's Navigator - that said task would be something she would be good at or even enjoy doing. She sounded like she'd dropped into his lap by magic - the perfect solution to his little problem! But of course Yu continued to listen, adding each new tidbit to the growing mental 'dossier' he had for the Gallian.

"Although they do not know, I believe your Honored Mothers would be pleased to know I find you a credit to not only the House Arato," He said her House name in the manner with which Xanir did, without the mana-fueled translation but with a quite passable accent, "But to your instructors and indeed your people as well." Yu rose to his feet and came to stand before Xanir, tail swishing in a manner that spoke of a very satisfied [sofa]Dragon; gently and slowly he reached for her hands, his own completely enveloping hers. "I would be most pleased if you would agree to take over duties as my Head Steward." It was a title Artimesh had discovered and informed him was hers until he could replace her with someone better suited...he'd decided to keep it. For now. "As of this moment, Artimesh has done her best to fill the need, but it is wholly unsuited to her skill-sets and disposition..and I have had to spend much time helping her. You, however, have all the qualifications needed to fill the role...indeed, I believe you would not only excel, but thrive."

With that said, he gave a short summary of what it entailed: basically, taking care of the entire Household...and seeing to it that any seeking his counsel or mitigation were directed to him expediently. It wasn't an easy job, but so close to what she had already said she was skilled with, it was his best chance to benefit all parties involved. Xanir was bored and disused to malingering, Yu needed a Head Steward. He hoped she would accept the post. Even after the Dragon King added in that she would be trusted with the spawn, Joss and Dan - though mostly it was Joss that needed being taken in hand. Dan was a lost cause for "taming" and he was resigned to (and secretly delighted by) it. "Naturally you may test the suitability of the position before fully accepting. I do ask that you try, if it sounds reasonable by your ear."

Prolixity

I only took forever! biggrin